LOS ANGELES.–Former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., 69, said he fully expects 77-year-old President Donald Trump to appeal his May. 30 conviction for 34 felonies, not speculating on the outcome but say there would be “strong appeals.” “Well, certainly there will be strong appeals, and there are going to be issue that will be carefully considered by the appellate courts,” Vance Jr. said. Vance Jr. refused to prosecute Trump before he left office in 2021, handing the reins to 50-year-old Alvin Bragg. Bragg ran on a campaign in 2021 to charge Trump with felonies related to his hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. Vance Jr. found insufficient evidence to go forward to press charges against Trump in a matter that happened before the 2016 presidential election. Bragg fulfilled his campaign promise upgrading ordinary misdemeanors to felonies and charging Trump.
White House, Democrats and press pound their chests calling Trump a “convicted felon,” but Vance Jr. reminds the media on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that the convictions could be all tossed out by the Appeals Court. Vance Jr. had no comment of Trump’s defense strategy but clearly asking a jury to believe that Trump’s former Atty. Michale Cohen went rogue, deciding to payoff Stormy Daniels $130,000 before the 2016 presidential election, didn’t sit well with jurors. Trump’s lead defense attorney Todd Blanche would have been better off admitting that Trump signed off on the payment but only because he trusted his “fixer” to handle his legal affairs. Much was made by Bragg’s prosecutors of Trump trying to cover-up an underlying felony related to campaign or election law. Vance Jr. had no comment about how Blanche handled Trump’s defense in the case.
Vance Jr. was asked by NBC News host Peter Alexander about the prospects of appeal “But I want to address that, if I can. Peter, you know, that’s not—that’s not necessarily totally unusual New York Law, you commit burglary in New York, burglary of a dwelling, where you enter a person’s home with intent to commit a crime herein. The jury is not required to find beyond a reasonable doubt what that crime is,” Vance Jr. said regarding the idea that the jury jumped the gun on an election law violation. Vance Jr. just said that the jury didn’t have to rule on the issue of the underlying crime. But that’s not going to be the basis of Trump’s appeal that involves the fact that Bragg upgraded Trump charges to Class 3 felonies before charging him.
Appeals court will want to know whether Bragg used his office to for political purposes in his charging decisions on Trump.
Trump’s appellate attorneys will argue that the whole matter should have handled like other cases involving what Bragg called bookkeeping errors, usually prosecuted in New York courts as misdemeanors, not felonies. Trump’s lawyers will argue that Bragg used selective prosecution and Democrat bias to upgrade all of Trump’s bookkeeping charges to Class 3 felonies for the purpose of prosecuting the former president. Vance Jr. doesn’t know all the grounds for potential appeal but certainly Judge Juan Merchan, Bragg and the jury’s political bias would play a part in any appeal. Any appellate court would want to know why Merchan would slap a gag order on Trump and not Bragg’s star witnesses, former Atty. Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels. Trump was sanctioned by Merchan 10 times but never questioned Cohen or Daniel’s appearances on anti-Trump TV.
Vance didn’t really address all the potential grounds for appeal, only the issue of whether the jury jumped the gun on the election law violation. “But so, my point is in other areas of the law, this has been sustained, and I think that will be informative and perhaps decisive to the appellate courts as they look at the president’s appeal,” Vance Jr. said. Trump’s appeal isn’t likely to only question whether the jury assumed facts not in evidence to convict Trump of 34 felonies related to New York election or campaign law. Trump’s appeal will go beyond Bragg’s underlying case, that Trump’s payment to Stormy Daniels covered-up and underlying election or campaign law crime. Trump’s appeal will go to the heart of the entire felony case which was deliberately upgraded by Bragg when he should have prosecuted the case as bookkeepting misdemeanors, not felonies.
Vance Jr. doesn’t think Judge Juan Merchan will impose jail time at his July 11 sentencing hearing. “If you ask me do I think the court will impose jail in this case, as I said to you, I think yesterday, I think not. But ultimately, that [Judge Juan Merchan’s’] decision, Vance Jr. said. Voters trying to digest the effect of Trump’s conviction on his 2024 campaign should consider the fact that the charges against Trump were contrived by Bragg to fulfill a campaign promise to prosecute the former president. However many times Merchan found Trump in contempt of his gag order, the appellate court will want to know that the same restrictions was applied to Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels. Cohen spoke disparagingly about Trump on numerous appearance on anti-Trump TV shows without any gag order from Judge Merchan. If that doesn’t show Merchan’s Democrat bias, then what does?
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
